Lai Jieji, Liu Bin, Wang Hong
School of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
School of Accounting, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 Apr 18;13:886114. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.886114. eCollection 2022.
Buddhism and Taoism are among two of the major religions in China. Their "Tian-ren-he-yi" belief system promotes a conception of harmony between man and nature, which is an important guide for the construction of ecological civilization in China. Using data from Chinese listed manufacturing companies, this paper explores the impact and mechanism of Chinese local religious beliefs on corporate environmental governance. The results indicate that this belief system can improve corporate environmental performance. Furthermore, mechanism tests show that the "Tian-ren-he-yi" belief system promotes corporate environmental practices by reducing the pressure on management to achieve economic performance goals and increasing investment in environmental protection. Finally, the impact of the belief system on corporate environmental performance is more efficacious when the enterprises are under weak external supervision. Our results imply that the traditional religious culture is an important factor that influences corporate environmental performance in Chinese business practices.
佛教和道教是中国两大主要宗教。它们的“天人合一”信仰体系倡导人与自然和谐的理念，这是中国生态文明建设的重要指南。本文利用中国制造业上市公司的数据，探讨中国本土宗教信仰对企业环境治理的影响及作用机制。结果表明，这种信仰体系能够提升企业的环境绩效。此外，机制检验表明，“天人合一”信仰体系通过减轻管理层实现经济绩效目标的压力以及增加环境保护投入来促进企业的环境实践。最后，当企业面临较弱的外部监管时，该信仰体系对企业环境绩效的影响更为显著。我们的研究结果表明，传统宗教文化是影响中国商业实践中企业环境绩效的重要因素。
